Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – The pharmaceutical company from the United States (US) Merck & Co. and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics are seeking domestic and foreign emergency authorization for the use of molnupiravir, their oral antiviral drug for Covid-19.
If approved by regulatory agencies, molnupiravir could become the first oral antiviral drug for Covid-19. Currently used antiviral treatments, such as remdesivir, are given intravenously.
This drug made by Merck showed convincing results in clinical trials some time ago. The drug is said to reduce the risk of hospitalization or death by about 50% for patients with mild or moderate cases of Covid-19. Molnupiravir works by inhibiting the replication of Covid-19 in the body.
Previous laboratory studies have shown that the drug, molnupiravir, is potentially effective against coronaviruses, including the highly contagious Delta variant.
Reported from Reuters, molnupiravir does not target the viral spike protein, as all current Covid-19 vaccines target, and determines the differences between the variants. The US drugmaker tests its antivirals against swab samples taken from participants in the initial trial of the drug
Merck’s Department of Infection, Disease and Vaccines Jay Grobler said at the time of the trial, the Delta variant had not yet been widely circulated but that molnupiravir was tested against laboratory samples of the variant behind the latest spike in Covid-19 hospitalizations and deaths.
Merck is currently conducting two Phase III trials of the antiviral it developed with Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, one for the treatment of Covid-19 and the other for prevention. Gobler said Merck expects that the Phase III treatment study will be completed in early November.
The trial was conducted on non-hospitalized Covid-19 patients who had symptoms for no more than five days and were at risk of developing severe illness. The latest analysis was presented during IDWeek, the annual meeting of infectious disease organizations, including the Infectious Diseases Society of America.
Grobler said the drug being tested should be just as effective as the virus continues to evolve. Molnupiravir targets viral polymerase, an enzyme the virus needs to make copies of itself.
This drug is designed to work by inserting an error into the genetic code of the virus. The data suggest that the drug is most effective when given early in the course of infection.
Merck said earlier this year that a small, mid-stage trial found that after five days of molnupiravir treatment, no patients taking multiple doses of the drug tested positive for the infectious virus, while 24% of placebo patients had detectable levels.
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